Clown Extorts Immigrants’ Cash: Norteno Posse Wear Colours

TO San Francisco, where a man has charged his victims $50,000 in a scam:

A Redwood City man who tried to pick up blackmail money from his immigrant relatives while dressed in a clown suit has been sentenced to three years in prison for passing himself off as a federal immigration agent.

Solorza was arrested in February 2009 after he arrived at a home in San Mateo County on a child’s bicycle — while dressed in a clown suit, a clown glitter wig, a Pirates of the Caribbean hat (complete with dreadlocks) and sunglasses — and grabbed a briefcase that he believed contained $50,000 he had demanded as the price for not having his relatives deported, authorities said.

Why can’t the officials just wear navy blue, or come as Captain Hook?

Solorza is a cousin of the alleged victims, who emigrated from Mexico. The father of four said three Norteno gang members had put him up to the scam…

Only the judge rumbled him:

“Nortenos always dress in their colors; they don’t use disguises, let alone engage in crimes wearing clown suits,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Barry and Denise Marie Barton wrote in a sentencing memo filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland.

And those calls purporting to be from customs:

Agents discovered that the calls had been made from a cell phone belonging to Solorza’s wife. Solorza had the cell phone and a receipt from the House of Humor costume store in Redwood City when he was arrested.